I work for a Council in Melbourne, Australia who are endeavouring to work with local residents showing an interest in reducing their households greenhouse emissions by making small changes in their behaviour and lifestyle, without affecting their quality of life. Council will subsidise program valued at $1250 residents will only have to pay half.
We are at recruitment stage and are having trouble with uptake. So far we have sent letters and information to 500 households in a certain neighbourhood inviting them to participate in the program, a consultant has the done follow up phone calls to get people signed up. 100 households have been called and we only have 5 signed up. Any suggestion strategies would be greatly appreciated? Any strategies that have worked? Anything would be helpful.
Lisa Coffa
City of Yarra
Australia
Greenhouse Reduction Program
Sign in or Sign up to comment
Hi Lisa
It's a shame I only saw this post today. I was in Australia at the Evaluating Behaviour Change conference all last week and staying in Yarra! I am based in NZ at the moment and we worked with a similar pilot programme here. We too found that letters and follow-up phone calls did not work (too much like direct selling). We found a variety of approaches- using local networks such as schools and residents groups, having a presence at community events, markets etc worked well as we could explain to people the different products and services available. Some people were happy to have a short home assessment (in reality, these often went on for longer) but were not, initially, happy to commit to an hour. Some lower socio-economic households were only interested in the freebies while other households were happy to commit to some contribution...am happy to give you a call and discuss further, if you are interested.
Janet MacDonald
Managing Director
Atlas Communications & Media
United Kingdom
www.atlascomm.co.uk
Sounds great - I wish you were doing this program in my neighborhood, Lisa!
"A wireless efergy meter to measure your energy use during the program
and to help sustain household energy reductions in the long term"
I read about a program where people had energy meters that showed how their house compared with other people's houses in the neighborhood in energy consumption. Neighbors got really competitive in their efforts to conserve.
I wonder if there is a way to add a competitive angle to your program, and if that would be appealing to people?
Jennifer Dory
URS Corporation
United States
Hi Jennifer,
What will participants receive through the program?
A household sustainability assessment, which includes behaviour change
recommendations
A wireless efergy meter to measure your energy use during the program
and to help sustain household energy reductions in the long term
A retrofit (including draught proofing, and light globe and showerhead
replacements) to help improve energy efficiency and reduce the running
costs of your house
An information pack containing practical information and advice on
saving energy
Ongoing advice and motivation from experts, which includes home visits,
email and phonebased support for participants.
Regards,
Lisa
Lisa Coffa
City of Yarra
Australia
How is offer phrased? People hate to lose something about twice as much as we enjoy getting something. so "by not implimenting these measures, you will lose (whatever they will lose)" is likely to get more response than "impliment these great measures and you will get (whatever they will gain)." Also "By not joining, you will lose $500 in matching funds" is probably more effective than "join and receive $500 in matching funds."
Robert Rowell
educator
United States
Lisa, can you provide any more detail about what are people getting for their $625 (US$560)? It seems to me that that people would have to be pretty committed already to make that kind of investment.
Jennifer Dory
URS Corporation
United States
Hi Lisa
you may want to consider using existing networks and groups as a pathway to get new reccuits (eg. Rotary, sport clubs, church groups etc). Word of mouth tends to be a powerful mechanism to recruit, especially from peers, so if you could find a leader in an existing group to recruit within their networks that may boost numbers. Also get existing recruits to spread the word to their nighbours etc about the program.
Good luck,
Damien Sweeney
National Centre for Sustainability, Swinburne University of Technology
Australia